Books: Great Shade Secrets & Photography Workshop

These two new titles from Timber Press will carry you beautifully through the planting season.

There are lots of books on shade gardening, but this one stands out as the one you might want on your reference shelf because of its all-inclusive subject matter and comprehensive list (with photos) of gorgeous shade plants. Glorious Shade: Dazzling Plants, Design Ideas, and Proven Techniques for Your Shady Garden (Timber Press, 2017) by Jenny Rose Carey, director of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, encourages you to embrace the shady spots in your garden rather than curse them. 

As Carey puts it in the introduction, shade gardens offer "...cool refreshing places to sit away from the heat of the sun and paths that entice visitors to explore." But best of all, she says, "The ever-changing beauty of the shade garden is a celebration of life; a multifaceted ecosystem full of a diverse community of plants and animals... that will let you revel in the benefits that a glorious shade garden will bring to your life."

Carey tells you how to create a shade garden, no matter what kind of space you have -- how to plant in and among tree roots and next to buildings.  She offers design ideas, from Japanese-style gardens to water-saving solutions, tropical and water gardens, and shade gardens composed of containers.  And finally, there are extensive plant lists of trees and shrubs, vines, ferns, perennials, tropicals and annuals. 

I can't think of a better volume of shade gardening that's as useful as this one.

It's pretty easy to pick up that cellphone and start snapping away on visits to public gardens or on great garden tours.  But your photos will say much more to you if you follow a few simple photographic tips and techniques. 

In The Garden Photography Workshop: Expert Tips and Techniques for Capturing the Essence of Your Garden (Timber Press, 2017), British photographer Andrea Jones shows you how to take photos with impact that will capture both the spirit of the place and design details you want to remember.

A chapter on cameras and digital devices and how to use them to best effect is particularly useful. Did you ever wonder how to handle exposure without using a good light meter? Want to know what the professionals always carry with them to handle various situations?  How to get good garden photos in small spaces?  It's all here in the book.

Most useful of all, Jones includes portraits of 10 different gardens and walks you through the way she captured each one in images. There are lessons about weather, framing, light, color, detail in the shadows, and much much more.

Pick up a copy of this book ... and you'll see an almost instant improvement in almost anything you dare to shoot (Shoot photos, that is).